SL Imagine Cup finals on April 29

The finals of the software design category the Sri Lankan leg of Microsoft's annual international student software competition, the Imagine Cup, will be held on April 29 in Colombo. Out of 25 initial entry submissions, eight teams have been short listed to compete locally in this the only category where teams will battle it out country-wide first for the right to be selected to go to Poland to contend against their international peers.

Meanwhile, the teams competing in the Sri Lankan finals of the software design category include "three teams from University of Colombo (Teams Collectivists, Saturnin and GreenBros), two teams from Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology – SLIIT (Teams JIIB and HELY), two teams from the University of Moratuwa (Teams 4-Alliance and Saggezza) and one team from the University of Peradeniya (Team MakeIT)".

This was noted in a statement by the company's local office, which also added that there were "over 300,000 students registering for last year’s global competition”. Additionally, Microsoft's statement further noted that last year's categories were limited to "Software Design, Embedded Development, Game Development, Robotics and Algorithm, IT Challenge, Mash Up, Photography, Short Film and Design" and that 2009’s Sri Lankan finalists "'Team Mahee' from SLIIT were able to proceed to the second round in the World Finals held in Egypt".

Meanwhile, the statement also added that “new award additions this year have been the Interoperability Award, Touch & Tablet Accessibility Award and the Next Generation Web Award". (JH)